Chapel en le Frith, Derbyshire

Description
Chapel-en-le-Frith, a small market and union town and a parish in Derbyshire. The town stands on the slope of a high hill, near the High Peak, 5 miles N of Buxton, and has a station on the L. & N.W. and M.R. The Peak Forest tramway runs through the town. It sprang from an ancient church or chapel within the Peak " frith " or forest, and is now a centre of local trade, a seat of petty sessions, and a polling place. It has a post, money order, and telegraph office under Stockport, two chief inns, a town-hall, a church, two dissenting chapels, a workhouse, and a county police station. The town-hall is a neat stone building, erected in 1851, and enlarged in 1882. Manufacture is carried on in cotton and paper mills and calico printing works, and there are two iron foundries and engine-fitting shops. A considerable traffic exists in the tranStr of coal and limestone from neighbouring works to distant places. Cattle markets are held on the first Thursday in each month, and fairs on the Thursday before 14 Feb., 3 March, 29 March, 30 April, Holy Thursday, the third Thursday after Holy Thursday, 7 July, Thursday after 11 October, and Thursday before 23 November. The parish includes the hamlet of Cockyard and part of the hamlets of Dove Holes, Chapel Milton, and Sparrow Pit. Acreage of parish, 9752 ; population, 4647. Much of the surface is hill and moor. The manor belongs to the Duchy of Lancaster. Eccles House, Ford Hall, Hor-wich House, Bowden Hall, and The Ridge are chief residences. The canal reservoir is a fine sheet of water, and the Barmour-Clough well is an ebbing and flowing spring. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Southwell; net value, £274 with residence. The church is dedicated to St Thomas a Becket, and was thoroughly restored in 1893.